Disk drives comprise a head actuated over a disk by rotating an actuator arm about a pivot. The head is typically mounted on a slider that is coupled to a distal end of a suspension through a gimbal, wherein the suspension is coupled to a distal end of the actuator arm. It may be desirable to test a number of the suspensions, for example, as part of a quality control procedure to ensure that a sampled lot of the suspensions satisfy certain design specifications. If enough of the suspension fail the quality control procedure, the suspension manufacturing process may be modified so as to rectify the problem. When testing the suspensions, it is desirable to quickly clamp/unclamp the suspension to/from the actuator arm of a test station (e.g., a suitable spin stand or a disk drive based test station) so as to maximize the throughput of the testing procedure.